What is known about children's undernutrition and health levels in China - An empirical analysis from 1991 to 2009

Child nutritional health has always been a research focus and an essential indicator reflecting children's health and living conditions in developing countries. This study investigates how household income and other individual and family factors influence child nutritional status. The Chinese Health and Nutrition Survey data are used to analyze changing patterns of child malnutrition status, and to compare the gap between genders, rural and urban areas etc., and the WHO new child growth standards are used in this paper as the reference for each specific age and gender. The findings in this paper include three aspects. First of all, the headcount ratio of undernourished children in both stunting and underweight has declined over years from 1991 to 2009 in China. Second, regional disparity in child nutritional status was significant, and the economic growth was a key driver to improve the nutritional conditions of the poor children. Furthermore, this paper also employs the stepwise logistic regression models to illustrate the influencing mechanisms of family income and other factors on child nutrition, and finds that household income affected child nutritional status significantly through the mechanisms of community, household, parental and individual factors.